An Analysis: Number the Stars

“You shall not lie” (Exodus 20:16). This is an explicit biblical command ordering us to tell the truth always, even under difficult circumstances. It is the Ninth Commandment, and, therefore, we should always obey it. However, Annemarie Johansen and her family go directly against this command and endanger their own lives in order to save their Jewish friends. The setting of the book, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, is in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the second world war. Annemarie, her sister Kirsti, her mother, and her father are confronted with a decision that could change the lives of their best friends, the Rosens. Soldiers are on the prowl, seeking, capturing, and killing Jews. Those that are not killed are exported to Germany. The Rosens are Jews, and they must flee Denmark to escape to Sweden. Mr. and Mrs. Rosen are hidden, but they send their daughter Ellen, Annemarie’s best friend, to the Johansens until they can find a way to get Ellen out of Copenhagen. A group of soldiers burst into the Johansens apartment one night, demanding to know where the Johansens are. The children are brought before the soldiers, and Mr. and Mrs. Johansen lie in order to save Ellen and her family. This clearly goes against the Ninth Commandment, along with other explicit biblical commands to tell the truth.

 
Should the Johansens have lied to the soldiers? I believe that they were right for two reasons. The first reason is that they were protecting the innocent. The second reason is that they were also saving several lives.

The first reason the Johansens were right in lying is that they were protecting the innocent. The Rosens had not disobeyed the government, and they had done nothing to anger or provoke the soldiers. The Nazis would have arrested the Rosens simply for adhering to their personal beliefs. Also, God tells us to save the innocent believers who are being martyred. “Rescue those who are being taken to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11). The Jews were those who were being captured and killed, and the Johansens, by their actions, were protecting the innocent people who could not defend themselves. The Rosens had no connections with the Resistance, a group of people who smuggled Jews to safer places, so there was no way that the Rosens could have escaped without help. The Johansens’ uncle was in the Resistance, as well as a young man named Peter, whom the Johansens knew. By sending the Rosens to the uncle, the Johansens were protecting and saving their friends who were being persecuted.

The second reason the Johansens were right in lying is that they were saving several lives. Mrs. Johansen, Annemarie, Kirsti, and Ellen went to Annemarie’s uncle to help the Rosens escape Denmark. The Johansens saved Ellen’s life as well as her parents’ lives. By remaining silent and acting a lie, the Johansens saved the lives of the other Jews who were leaving Denmark with the Rosens. Mrs. Johansen had to lie to the soldier who came to the uncle’s house when all the Jews were gathered there to leave. She had to lie to that soldier, she and Mr. Johansen had to lie to the soldiers in the apartment, and the entire family was acting a lie by not saying anything to the soldiers. In lying to the soldiers, the Johansens saved the lives of the present Jews, of the uncle, of Peter, and also the lives of their own family, for helping the Jews was punishable with death or deportation.

In conclusion, I think that the Johansens were right in lying to the soldiers for two reasons: they were protecting the innocent and they were saving several lives.

– By Samantha Jennings